Extensive repetitive DNA facilitates prokaryotic genome plasticity.

ABSTRACT: Prokaryotic genomes are substantially diverse, even when from closely related species, with the resulting phenotypic diversity representing a repertoire of adaptations to specific constraints. Within the microbial population, genome content may not be fixed, as changing selective forces favor particular phenotypes; however, organisms well adapted to particular niches may have evolved mechanisms to facilitate such plasticity. The highly diverse Helicobacter pylori is a model for studying genome plasticity in the colonization of individual hosts. For H. pylori, neither point mutation, nor intergenic recombination requiring the presence of multiple colonizing strains, is sufficient to fully explain the observed diversity. Here we demonstrate that H. pylori has extensive, nonrandomly distribut

SUBMITTER: Aras RA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC263856 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature